"We're all the rage"
Bad Company 2 continues its not-so-covert war against Modern Warfare 2 with map pack announcement
DICE have taken every opportunity to capitalize on the mistakes made by Activision and Infinity Ward with regard to Modern Warfare 2. From their timely announcement that Bad Company 2 would be using dedicated servers right down to the language on the game’s info page (emphasis mine):
All of [Bad Company 2's] features combine to deliver spectacular and unpredictable action moments found nowhere else in a modern warfare experience.
If you played through the singleplayer campaign in Battlefield Bad Company 2, you likely heard a couple more digs at Modern Warfare 2. But in case you missed them:
Actually when I heard the “heartbeat monitor” reference, my first thought was not MW2, but an older (and better) game:
And no, I don’t mean those abortions of the franchise bearing the mark of Lockdown or Vegas, I mean the classic 1998 Red Storm game.
At any rate, DICE are continuing their assault on MW2 without actually saying its name, I can only assume for fear that uttering it thrice will summon a manner of Beetlejuice-type being that wants nothing more than to marry a game designer who looks just like a goth Winona Ryder (you know who you are), and let’s face it: sandworms make a mess.
The latest shot fired, which came shortly after Modern Warfare 2‘s first map pack was announced, is in the form of a Battlefield Blog post entitled “How to avoid ‘mapathy’ without paying!” In case you couldn’t tell, this is a post about Bad Company 2‘s very own map pack, to be released on — wait for it — March 30! Those of you who have been paying attention have already noticed this is the same day MW2‘s “Stimulus Package” will be let loose. The difference is DICE is making their maps free to all “VIP members” (fret not, if you bought a new copy of the game, you’re a VIP member. It’s all part of EA’s “Project Ten Dollar,” which is designed to keep money coming their way instead of going to used-game retailers by making DLC free to purchasers of new copies, while charging $10 [get it?] for those who bought second-hand).
To be fair, BC2‘s map pack only includes two maps, both of which are simply different game modes for existing maps. So you’ll be able to play Arica Harbor on Conquest mode (instead of Rush) and Laguna Presa on Rush (instead of Conquest). This is a pretty simple update, and while I’m not really sure two items constitutes a “pack,” the point is that it’s a free update and DICE are sure to let you know their stance on that:
[New content] also plays a vital part in making sure you, the players get proper value for the money you’ve invested in Battlefield: Bad Company 2. This is why these map packs are available at no extra cost, contradicting the industry standard and what our direct competitors are doing. Of course, it also helps avoid segmenting the community, making sure everyone can play together having the same maps available.
I suppose the comment on segmenting the community is a valid one, but it’s sort of a foreign concept to PC gamers. Aside from the fact that new maps (which, along with new character skins, are probably the oldest form of DLC) were always free, a new map was never more than a Google search and a download away. Simpler still, for example, whenever you play a Valve game (Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat, Half-Life Deathmatch, etc.) on PC and you connect to a server running a map you don’t have, it’s only a matter of waiting a few moments for the map to download and install itself so you can jump into the action. For likely a number of reasons, this user-driven community hasn’t developed on consoles the way it did on PC, and there was no need to implement such a system. It’s scary for PC gamers to think that what DICE are doing is “contradicting the industry standard,” but it’s the sad reality when it comes to the console market.
The truth is, since it’s essentially only reworkings of already-released maps — and only two of them at that — DICE and EA would be hard pressed to actually charge users for this “content.” You could argue that players aren’t being charged for the two maps in MW2‘s package that are simply being ported over from CoD4 (is there even any porting to do?), but that would actually hurt your argument since it would mean you’re being charged a quarter of the price of a “full” game for only three maps instead of five. It’s a smart move for DICE and EA to promote a user-friendly image and make everyone feel like they’re keeping an eye out for you instead of just keeping an eye on the bottom line, even if it seems that Activision and, to a lesser extent, Infinity Ward are doing most of the work for them by distancing themselves even further from their audience.
Two things:
First, the Vegas series wasn’t so terrible it was an abortion. It was more a stillbirth.
Second, when I first heard about this, I was dumbfounded. EA was letting DICE release content for free? Then I read the article carefully and realized it was just same maps/new modes. Then I realized the new modes were not new to the game/gamer, just new to that map. I suspect they new the MW2 map pack was coming so these modes were held from the maps only so they’d have the opportunity to take this jab at IW. I think we should have had these modes on game-day, it was a childish move on EA/DICE’s part, and only makes themselves look hungry for forgiveness.
It seems along the lines of, but not as bad as, the jab they took at MW2 regarding PC support when they posted on their forums that they’d give PC players some loving with a different experience than console. What did we end up getting? Yes, we have a server browser but it seems thrown together at the last second, riddled with bugs and crashes. Yeah, we have 32 player servers but the maps are all best played at 24 and many feel unplayable at 32. Finally, they removed match making which I actually find frustrating. I know most PC players hate it but it’s usually because lately we’ve ONLY gotten matchmaking. Is it so hard to get both? Especially with Squad Death Match, I want to get together with 4 of my friends and have it drop us into a server together where we won’t get separated. Instead, we have to jump from server to server using a horrendously slow server browser that has to refresh every time we leave a game.
Point is, I feel like I’m not being lied to but like EA/DICE is bending the truth to curry favor. I say boo to both EA/DICE and IW. Boooooooo!
A valid point, but we can’t necessarily condemn DICE without knowing A) if your assertions are true (they certainly could be) and B) who made the decision to withhold content (either the developer or the publisher, and I’m willing to bet EA). There are alot of things we should have had on game day, include stable EA Master Servers, but alas and alack, we still don’t have those.
Your squad matchup argument is valid, but let’s be fair here. The first time I saw that implemented in a game was L4D2 (please note I said “I”; I haven’t seen every game out there and it may have been implemented elsewhere before) and that really wasn’t all that long ago. The game has, despite the roughness of certain parts of the interface, done a remarkable job of overcoming “console-itis,” which typically kills most games. At least they try to squad you up when you join on a friend.